Ericsson and Proximity Worldwide First to Expand Mobile Marketing Business

Business Wire, Nov 25, 2004

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERICY), the world leader in mobile communications, and Proximity Worldwide, the leader in customer relationship marketing and part of the BBDO's advertising network, have signed an agreement to jointly promote effective solutions for mobile marketing - the new emerging channel for relationship marketing. With 1.5 billion subscribers in the world's mobile networks, relationship marketing offers means of targeted communication through the mobile handset.

Starting in four countries, Germany, Italy, Singapore, and the United States, the mobile infrastructure will be utilized as a marketing communications channel. This opens up new revenue opportunities for operators by increased traffic in their mobile infrastructure.

With text, pictures, and multimedia capabilities, today's mobile communication offers new ways for relationship marketing to mobile consumers. To offer solutions for companies that are looking to promote their brands in today's new mobile environment, Ericsson Mobility World has initiated the partnership with Proximity Worldwide.

"With Proximity as our global partner for mobile marketing campaigns, we combine our technology leadership in mobility with a world-class agency excelling in customer relationship management," said Johan Bergendahl, Vice President Marketing at Ericsson. "Mobility is a key requirement for today's societies. With the growing number of multimedia capable handsets, mobile marketing offers a multiplicity of opportunities, benefiting consumers, operators and CRM-agencies alike."

Proximity Worldwide has a track record of highly successful relationship marketing for some of the world's strongest brands and is ranked as number one in CRM.

"Relationship marketing campaigns increasingly include mobile response applications as a powerful interactive one-to-one communication instrument," said Mat Mildenhall, Chief Operating Officer of Proximity Worldwide. "It is our responsibility as market leaders to push the development in multi-channel relationship marketing. Working with Ericsson enables us to offer innovative end-to-end mobile marketing solutions and create a strong benefit for advertisers."

Ericsson has the most advanced technical platforms and enablers and possesses well-proven expertise in mobile business consulting to support operators and enterprises. With Ericsson Mobility World, a network of several hundred application developers and content providers is available.

Ericsson is shaping the future of Mobile and Broadband Internet communications through its continuous technology leadership. Providing innovative solutions in more than 140 countries, Ericsson is helping to create the most powerful communication companies in the world.

Read more at http://www.ericsson.com/press

About Proximity Worldwide

Proximity Worldwide is one of the world's leading direct and relationship marketing agency networks. The Proximity network is part of the BBDO Worldwide global advertising agency network. Agencies in 41 countries encompass Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa and elsewhere. Network Headquarters location is in London, UK.

About BBDO Worldwide

BBDO Worldwide (www.bbdo.com) is the third leading global agency network, with 328 offices in 76 countries. It is part of Omnicom Group, Inc. the leading marketing communications network in the world.